The Relationship Between Gambling Involvement and Financial Health: An Analysis of 1.8 Million UK Open Banking Customers

Session Title

Financial Impacts: Debt, Spending & Behavior

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation

Start Date

28-5-2026 12:00 AM

Abstract

This study utilizes a massive Open Banking dataset from 1.8 million UK customers to analyze the relationship between gambling and financial health over a 24-month period (Jan 2023 – Dec 2024). Unlike prior cross-sectional snapshots, this research employs a longitudinal design to track the stability of gambling behaviors and their impact on objective financial markers like debt service and savings. The study addresses five core objectives: (1) determining gambling prevalence; (2) examining sociodemographic variations; (3) exploring the correlation between gambling intensity and financial health; (4) identifying "highly-involved" subgroups using Gini coefficients and Lorenz curves; and (5) assessing the temporal persistence of high-risk behaviors. We hypothesize a heavy-tailed distribution where approximately 3% of users account for disproportionate activity and exhibit persistent engagement over time. Furthermore, we anticipate higher gambling involvement will correlate with increased financial distress. These findings offer critical empirical evidence for defining affordability thresholds and developing financial health indexes for harm minimization.

Author Bios

Dr. Piyush Puranik holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from UNLV and specializes in applied AI and machine learning. He has published several papers on novel AI applications for analyzing gambling behavior and anomaly detection systems. In his current role, Dr. Puranik leads sponsored responsible gambling research projects and serves as the Lead Data Scientist for the AiR HUB initiative. He is also the associate editor of the UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal and editor of the State of AI in Gaming 2026 report.

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May 28th, 12:00 AM

The Relationship Between Gambling Involvement and Financial Health: An Analysis of 1.8 Million UK Open Banking Customers

This study utilizes a massive Open Banking dataset from 1.8 million UK customers to analyze the relationship between gambling and financial health over a 24-month period (Jan 2023 – Dec 2024). Unlike prior cross-sectional snapshots, this research employs a longitudinal design to track the stability of gambling behaviors and their impact on objective financial markers like debt service and savings. The study addresses five core objectives: (1) determining gambling prevalence; (2) examining sociodemographic variations; (3) exploring the correlation between gambling intensity and financial health; (4) identifying "highly-involved" subgroups using Gini coefficients and Lorenz curves; and (5) assessing the temporal persistence of high-risk behaviors. We hypothesize a heavy-tailed distribution where approximately 3% of users account for disproportionate activity and exhibit persistent engagement over time. Furthermore, we anticipate higher gambling involvement will correlate with increased financial distress. These findings offer critical empirical evidence for defining affordability thresholds and developing financial health indexes for harm minimization.